It's taken nearly two decades, and mountains of change led by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, a poet and former corporate executive, but it's finally happened — the conversation about the arts has grown up.

In other words, we're no longer stuck on poopy jokes.

Perhaps the testimonials by leading artists and administrators like Wynton Marsalis had some impact on the minds of Congress and the President. But it's also possible, perhaps more likely, that the United States has just gotten savvier when it comes to the arts.

Perhaps I'm being a bit of a Pollyanna in thinking that we've turned a corner of some kind. Maybe we can set aside the deleterious notion that the arts have to justify themselves somehow — lately, with reams of paper devoted to economic impact studies. Maybe we can embrace the assumption that the arts are a good thing unto themselves.